I wish I could remember who gave me this wonderful advice about writing: “Aim to write something that no one else could write.”
What does that mean? My friend Karen White (a superb writer) explains it this way: “If it’s already on the internet, don’t write it.”
Everything you write needs a perspective or experience that’s unique to you. That doesn’t always require I or me. It does require adding something that another writer might not have thought about.
Suppose you’re telling your readers how to bake a cherry pie. There are recipes all over the internet! Why would anyone be interested in your recipe?
The answer is that you know a trick that makes your pie better. Maybe you can make foolproof pie crust, for example.
Perhaps you can tell a story about discovering the magic ingredient or extra step yourself – baking with your grandmother when you were growing up, for example. (Stories are solid gold for writers!)
Picture courtesy of Ann Larie Valentine (CC License)